[Athen] [Nimas.ig] Accessible E-Book from mainstream publisher

[Ron Stewart]

There is also one Publisher, Pearson's K-12 division, that has released a
prototype fully accessible elementary book that is HTML based but appears to
be intended to test the market waters at this point.  As far as I am aware
no similar effort current in the public arena for a similar work from the
other major publishers but am sure it will be coming.

In addition Elsevier, provides XML based source files upon request for their
books so they are providing an accessible source file but it still requires
some work to be student ready.

Ron Stewart

-----Original Message-----
From: George Kerscher [mailto:kerscher at montana.com] 
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 10:35 AM
To: 'Jon Gunderson'; 'Uaccess-L'; 'ATHEN listserv'; 'Ron Stewart'; 'NIMAS
General Interest Group'
Subject: RE: [Nimas.ig] Accessible E-Book from mainstream publisher

Right now, Google has accessible versions of their out of copyright
materials. These are available online. Also, they have these titles
available as EPUB without encryption. The websites that distribute these are
not accessible, but this is not a Google distribution site. For example, the
Sony eReader site has these, and their site is aweful.

Overdrive has some of their materials available in an accessible form. I am
not sure of their overall status. Overdrive agrigates content.


the Adobe Digital Editions and their Content Server  use EPUB, but do not
have an accessible reader that accesses their protected content.

Barnes and Noble also uses EPUB and they do not have an accessible reader.
Their Windows application is very well behaved, but one cannot effectively
read the content. I can go into review mode and get some text; it seems to
me that it could be accessible with some effort. Yes, I have offered help
and made them aware of the issues.

Amazon is not accessible and I believe they also accept EPUB from
publishers, but they will also do their own conversions.

Finally there is CourseSmart, which is not accessible. They do not use EPUB.


All of these companies are aware of the accessibility issues.

Best
George

-----Original Message-----
From: nimas.ig-bounces at lists.cast.org
[mailto:nimas.ig-bounces at lists.cast.org] On Behalf Of Jon Gunderson
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 7:27 AM
To: Uaccess-L; ATHEN listserv; Ron Stewart; NIMAS General Interest Group
Subject: [Nimas.ig] Accessible E-Book from mainstream publisher

Are there any commercial publishers that support accessibility of their
electronic book technology or make their print books easily available as
electronic book in a DAISY or NIMAS format that is accessible?

I am interested in encouraging faculty who are publishing books to use
publishers that support accessibility.

Thanks you for any help you can provide.

Jon
 
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Coordinator Information Technology Accessibility
Disability Resources and Educational Services

Rehabilitation Education Center
Room 86
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820

Voice: (217) 244-5870

WWW: http://www.cita.illinois.edu/
WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/

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